This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
Carrier aggregation allows a radio bearer (i.e., a logical connection with certain features between a cellular network and a mobile station) to benefit from concurrent transmission over multiple carriers, thereby significantly increasing the bit-rates carrying data associated with different user applications. However, carrier aggregation can be implemented only if the two (or more) carriers that are being aggregated are co-located and there is tight coordination among them. The Seamless Macro-cell Anchored Radio Transmission (SMART) technique (also known as Dual Connectivity) enables a mobile station to have multiple, parallel links to different nodes in the cellular network. However, since these nodes and the corresponding carriers are not co-located or cannot be tightly coordinated, one cannot implement carrier aggregation to enable individual radio bearers in a SMART network to benefit from concurrent transmission over multiple carriers. Thus, new solutions and techniques that enable such functionality would meet a need and advance wireless communications generally.
Specific embodiments of the present invention are disclosed below with reference to FIGS. 1-4. Both the description and the illustrations have been drafted with the intent to enhance understanding. For example, the dimensions of some of the figure elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements, and well-known elements that are beneficial or even necessary to a commercially successful implementation may not be depicted so that a less obstructed and a more clear presentation of embodiments may be achieved.
Simplicity and clarity in both illustration and description are sought to effectively enable a person of skill in the art to make, use, and best practice the present invention in view of what is already known in the art. One of skill in the art will appreciate that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific embodiments described below without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative and exemplary rather than restrictive or all-encompassing, and all such modifications to the specific embodiments described below are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.